AMAA Apologizes To Ghanaian Stars And Media

Organizers of the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) have officially apologized to all who experienced various forms of challenges or frustrations while attending this year’s event in Bayelsa State, Nigeria, last month. Speaking at a press conference in Accra last Friday, Tony Anih, director of administration, acknowledged that AMAA had challenges this year and therefore accepted its mistakes. “I want to apologize for what happened at AMAA. We all witnessed what happened and we are making up here and there. I want to, from AMAA headquarters, sincerely apologize for whatever happened to anybody while in Nigeria. It was not intended. We never wanted to get anybody stranded. AMAA has never gotten anybody stranded as a section of people reported. But we had challenges. We had so many challenges this year that by special grace of God, we able to surmount and came out of it. It is not something that we want to come out and share. But we owe it as a responsibility to accept our fault,” Mr. Anih added. The soirée, which was organized at the Busy Internet in Accra, was to further push the AMAA agenda of using films to unite Africa and also apologize for hiccups at the ninth edition of the ceremony. Present was a delegation from AMAA, made up of Tony Anih, Rhoda Mandaza, AMAA South Africa and Frank Dallas, a Nollywood producer and writer . Among Ghanaians who attended the ceremony were Vivian Achor, Dzifa Glikpoe, Diana Gbartey, Ama K. Abebrese, Lydia Forson, Ken Addy and a host of others. The likes of Kofi Adjorlolo, Eddy Nartey and Prince David Osei, who attended AMAA this year, were not seen at the ceremony. Mr. Anih explained that the difficulties at AMAA were as a result of AMAA not having full control over the organization of the awards due to sponsorship from the Bayelsa State Government. He therefore called for more support from corporate bodies across Africa towards the organization and hosting of the ceremony. He explained that this year’s event saw independent participation from international media including the BBC, CNN and others from Australia and Japan. This, he explained, highlighted the importance of the AMAA in creating international presence for African cinema, calling for more support from Africa. Rhoda Mandaza spoke about the need to unite the creative arts industries in Africa by collaborating to tap into each other’s audience. She said musicians had already started doing that and it was time African filmmakers took it to the next level. Ghana’s darling actress Lydia Forson, who spoke on the topic ‘Bigger Picture Is What Counts’, said she had been attending AMAA for the last five years and it had benefited her in many ways. Most of the productions she had been part of across some African countries were through people she met on the AMAA platform. Leonora Buckman, who heads Women In Performing Arts, also talked about women’s contribution to creative arts in Ghana and how it could possibly help the AMAA agenda of uniting Africa.